Micro-blogging services, such as the Twitter® micro-blogging and social networking service, have become increasingly popular. The Twitter® micro-blogging and social networking service allows a user to post messages (i.e., tweets) that are then viewable by other users that subscribe to messages from the user (i.e., are “followers” of the user). The Twitter® micro-blogging and social networking service also allows users to insert hashtags in the form of #{keyword} (e.g., #musicmonday) into their tweets to identify relevant keywords or topics. The hashtags may then be used to search for tweets of interest. For example, a user may search for the hashtag #musicmonday in order to view all tweets including the hashtag #musicmonday. While, at this point, only the Twitter® micro-blogging and social networking service utilizes hashtags, hashtags could and are expected to be used in other existing or future microblogging services.
In addition, crowd-based services are also emerging. One exemplary crowd-based service is described in commonly owned and assigned U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0198828, entitled “Forming Crowds And Providing Access To Crowd Data In A Mobile Environment,” which published on Aug. 5, 2010; U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0197318, entitled “Anonymous Crowd Tracking,” which published on Aug. 5, 2010; U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0198826, entitled “Maintaining A Historical Record Of Anonymized User Profile Data By Location For Users In A Mobile Environment, which published on Aug. 5, 2010; U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0198917, entitled “Crowd Formation For Mobile Device Users,” which published on Aug. 5, 2010; U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0198870, entitled “Serving A Request For Data From A Historical Record Of Anonymized User Profile Data In A Mobile Environment,” which published on Aug. 5, 2010; U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0198862, entitled “Handling Crowd Requests For Large Geographic Areas,” which published on Aug. 5, 2010; and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0197319, entitled “Modifying A User's Contribution To An Aggregate Profile Based On Time Between Location Updates And External Events,” which published on Aug. 5, 2010; all of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
What is needed is a system and method that leverages hashtags to provide crowd-based features.